Aldi Barbie Holiday Advent Calendar

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It’s November, which essentially means it’s Christmas at Aldi. This past Wednesday, Aldi set out all of its Advent calendars, per usual. Some of the same calendars return every year, like the classic chocolate calendars, in addition to cheese, beer, and wine calendars.

The selection of toy calendars at Aldi often changes from year to year. We’ve reviewed quite a few of the toy calendars, including Squishmallows, Bluey, and Little People.

This year, we picked up the Barbie calendar. Aldi hasn’t carried any kind of Barbie calendar since 2021.

The Barbie Holiday Advent Calendar is $24.99, and it is an Aldi Find, meaning it’s only in stores for a limited time. Each store gets one shipment, and once it’s gone, it’s gone. You can’t buy Aldi products online if they’re sold out at your local store, but because this isn’t an Aldi-exclusive item, you can find it elsewhere. I found it on Amazon for $27.48 at the time of this post, which isn’t too much more than what you’d pay at Aldi.

The Barbie calendar comes with 24 doors, starting on December 1st, and finishing on Christmas Eve. There’s a panel on the back of the box that shows every item, but it can be removed if you don’t want the person opening to calendar to know what’s inside.

Aldi Barbie Holiday Advent Calendar — The back of the box shows the contents. You can remove this panel so the contents remain a surprise for a child opening the calendar each day.

Day 1 is just a standard Barbie in a painted-on pink swimsuit. She has the basic 5 points of articulation at the neck, arms, and legs. Her face is very pixelated, which is how Barbie has been printing faces for a while now, but she still looked nice, and her hair is very soft and a good length for hairstyling. We did notice one long piece of hair that hadn’t been cut properly in production, but I just used a pair of scissors to fix it.

Aldi Barbie Holiday Advent Calendar 4 — A strand of Barbie’s hair was much longer, so we fixed it with scissors.

The calendar includes (not in order):

Doll
2 skirts
A shirt
A jacket
A belt
3 pairs of shoes( 2 heels, 1 pair of boots)
3 pairs of sunglasses
4 necklaces
2 doll rings
2 bracelets
5 bags
A plastic present
A dog
A balloon
A headband
A diamond ring that opens
A ring for a child

I was happy that day two was a skirt, which means Barbie doesn’t have to live in a swimsuit for too long. This Barbie calendar is an actual Christmas themed calendar, so one of the skirts has bows, and there are a handful of winter elements thrown into some of the accessories.

Because it’s just an Advent calendar, the quality of the clothing and items aren’t going to be amazing. The fabric quality isn’t great, the bags don’t open, etc. Speaking of bags, I felt like there were way too many in this set. Some of them were cool enough. I liked the black shoulder bag and the pink rectangular clutch. Some of them, though, like the heart- and bow-shaped bags, just felt unnecessary, especially since they don’t open and Barbie can’t even hold the bow bag. But overall, I didn’t see too many filler items in this calendar.

Some items, specifically the dog and plastic present, are items you can find in other Barbie playsets, so either check your Barbie collection beforehand, or be okay with having duplicates. (Note: The dog’s face in my calendar was printed too high, so the eyes and nose don’t line up with the molding on the face. It isn’t a huge deal, it but should be part of quality control.)

The Advent calendar also comes with a ring for a child, but it’s very small. It also comes with a diamond-shaped bag. In the image on the front, Barbie is seen holding it like a bag, but we’re not quite sure. It opens and is meant to hold the tiny doll rings.

Aside from those mild complaints, I think I like this calendar better than the Barbie calendar from 4 years ago. The clothing, while simple, is cute, and looks good on Barbie. I like the coordination of the clothing with the shoes, bags, and jewelry. I also thought the additions of a plastic balloon and doll-sized rings were unique.

When we returned to Aldi a few days later, this calendar was sold out, so buy sooner rather than later.

The Verdict:

The Barbie Holiday Advent Calendar is $24.99 and is an Aldi Find. Overall, this is one of my favorite calendars I’ve opened. The pieces are cohesive, cute, and didn’t really have any extra throwaway pieces. If you’re a Barbie lover, or if you have a child who loves Barbie, this calendar is a great way to kick off the season.